Tarte aux noix – Walnut starter with Grenoble walnuts

We combined two recipes for this incredibly sumptuous tart: The recipe for the nut filling comes from Laurent Mariotte, a French gastro journalist and popular TV and radio presenter. Jamie Oliver's shortcrust pastry recipe.

Ingredients (for 6 people):

For the shortcrust pastry for a tart pan with a diameter of approx. 30 cm:

• 125g butter
• 100g powdered sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 250 g flour
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tbsp cold milk or water

For the nut filling:

• 200 g Grenoble walnuts (without shell)
• 200 g sugar (preferably light cane sugar)
• 1 deciliter of water
• 20 cl whipped cream
• 30 g mildly salted butter
• 30g honey
• 2 eggs

Preparation:

Prepare the dough ahead of time. He has to rest for an hour. To do this, shape it into a roll or ball and wrap it in cling film.

For the dough, mix the butter with sugar and salt until creamy. Mix with the flour and egg yolks until a crumbly mixture forms. This can be done with the food processor or by hand. Now add the cold milk/cold water and knead everything into a smooth dough and shape it into a ball. Dust with flour and shape, tap and press as quickly as possible. The aim is to process the ingredients into a dough as gently as possible so that it remains loose and crumbly. (The more it is kneaded, the more elastic it becomes, so that it contracts in the oven and becomes tough - and that must not happen under any circumstances! So just don't knead it too much!)

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 170°C.

Grease the bottom of the tart pan and dust it with flour. Then add the dough and press it down. Cover with baking paper, cover with rice or dry beans and pre-bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

For the caramel: Carefully heat the water and sugar in a saucepan until the whole thing gets a nice brown color. Then add the cream and let everything simmer on a low heat. Remove from the heat, add the honey and butter and mix everything together. Crack and roughly chop the nuts and add them. When the mixture has already cooled down a little, add the eggs and mix.

Pour the nut-caramel mixture onto the pre-baked cake base and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes. Finally, decorate with nut halves or chocolate sauce (or whatever else you can think of) and serve chilled.